Participants of a conference call often mute their telephone during the conference call for privacy or to ensure that background noise from the local environment does not interrupt the conversation. After muting the telephone, however, the participant may forget that the telephone has been muted and begin talking without un-muting the telephone. The participant often ends up “talking to mute” for some length of time.
A number of techniques have been proposed or suggested for muting or un-muting a telephone. For example, some conference call systems selectively mute the telephone of a participant in a conference call who is making noise that is disruptive or distracting to the other participants of the call. In addition, some mobile telephones allow a user to set a timeout period for a mute command, after which time the mute command is automatically reversed and the telephone is un-muted. While such timeout techniques have reduced the likelihood that a user will begin talking while a telephone is still muted, it is difficult for the user to accurately predict how long the timeout period should be set for.
A need therefore remains for improved techniques for automatically un-muting a telephone during a conference call.